Snake Newton Takes Adamson's Project Energia on the Road with Duran Duran

Duran Duran's long-time fonrt-of-house engineer, Snake Newton, ran with Adamson's Project Energia for the band's recent North American tour. The six-week tour was a build up for Duran Duran's "All You Need is Now" album due for release in early 2012. Energia Beta partner, Eighth Day Sound, of Cleveland, provided PA and the crew for all of the North American dates.

Though the Canadian loudspeaker manufacturer is currently a bit tight-lipped on the details on the new technology, Jesse Adamson, Adamson's director of marketing and sales, commented on the tour, "When Snake gave us the thumbs up to be the first on tour with Energia in North America, our team was ecstatic. Anyone that has ever worked with him knows that his mix is impeccable and that he doesn't accept anything but the best. Snake and Eighth Day Sound provided a flawless performance on the North American debut of Energia in Phase 1. The results could not have been better."

As the tour wrapped up, Newton also commented on the E15 system: "When I was approached to test drive Energia in the Beta phase, I had absolutely no reservations. Eighth Day Sound provided great support on the tour and the E15 delivered every time. The mid range definition and low mid punch is incredible and there was no sign of power compression at any point. This cannot be said for many other systems out there. Adamson have always produced great speakers and I look forward to seeing the next phase completed. With the amp and DSP in the box, consistency will be guaranteed in every territory throughout the world, along with many exciting array control possibilities which cannot easily be achieved by currently available systems."

Eighth Day Sound systems engineer Kyle Walsh was in charge of the daily system design, installation and alignment. He ran through the daily routine: "The E15 rigging is very simple to use. The angles are indicated with a combination of color coding and numbers, and all angles are set on the ground. There is no lifting required, so I was able to preset everything in the morning without the help of stage hands. The bumper and extender bar are light weight and they travel on the stack. Tuning was a breeze as the box sounded great out of the gate."